Ah Bengalis, who love ilish. They have to make it into such a big thing that it sounds suspiciously like Patrick Henry, the US politician screaming, "Give me ilish or give me death". Overdoing everything is our national culture and we are at it right now. In fact it became a national obsession after prices began to rise. Why it has gone up nobody can explain very well. For quite a while export to India was the whipping boy but when first export resumed, prices were less in India of imported hilsha than in Dhaka where prices soared. It's basically back to weeping, moaning and abusing in the choicest favourite Bangla words, though none are sure whom to abuse.

Fish time after 1971

Ilish was a fvourite dish no doubt for many and us too but not the supreme dish which has now become. It is now a national fetish and in is not just the national fish but national identity marker as well. You eat fish so you are a Bengali so you exist. While it's true we consider eating to our fill as the supreme patriotic task, we don't eat everything. Right now its ilish where everything is located toppling all other contenders. Yet there was a time when ilish was just another good fish, not exactly a member of the Bengali cultural pantheon.

Right after 1971, prices skyrocketed and many food items were beyond most middle class reach. The price of mutton was 2.5 taka per ser and beef 1.5. but they soon rose and there were concerned faces all around. Fish was however holding on and people were having that. It never even struck anyone that fishes could be expensive but they did start moving up in the price ladder also and soon.

An interesting part of the situation was the arrival of relief goods from the West. So we tasted foreign fishes we had never done before like salmon, tuna and mackerel. They were tinned fishes and we relished them. We also saw the arrival of sea fishes, a taboo in the Bengali palate till then and tasted powa fish. It was very cheap and not particularly tasty but chalta hai. However, ilish held its fort well.

My ilish prank

By mid-1972, we were admitted to the university and a whole new life began including making new friends who have remained so after all these years. Many were from outside Dhaka and they were all admitted to the many hostels of Dhaka University, halls as they were called. Soon they were visiting my home, a tiny respite from their very different hostel life.

My mother was very fond of playing host to my friends and my friends felt at ease with her. It was common to have one or two extra plates during meals. Even today my friends recall that in their conversations. She even tolerated some of my other friends who smoked marijuana in our sitting room. We called them the drawing room. What do they call it now?

Anyway, my friends ate poorly at the hostel. The cooking was terrible, the rice mangy, sometimes they had chapattis, which were ingloriously described as "record disks", that is round and hard. Dal was watery and the fish was almost always ilish, cheapest in the market. Just imagine, after a while they couldn't stand the sight of ilish.

So what could I do? I went and told mother that my friends were not getting any ilish to eat and wanted to but couldn't afford them. My mother was a bit puzzled since they were considered cheap but nevertheless immediately ordered four large ilish from the market. They were sliced, chopped, fried and cooked and then served to my four friends who sat down expectantly for a decent lunch after some days. The last thing they had expected was ilish.

My mother kept on piling their plates with fish and more fish and I think it was a lunch they were not likely to forget. The looks I got were fantastic and I survived because mother had brought doi and sweetmeats and my hungry friends ate it all. My mother later said, her cooking was probably not good so they were not so keen on the ilish. I didn't elaborate.

Ilish is a non-aristocratic fish?

Does ilish carry class? Doubtful. ilish is a proletariat fish and fifty years back was never sent as part of the wedding holud package to the bride's house. I remember a post 1971 rich guy who sent 100 ilish to the bride's house to impress them. However, they were considered an insult and the marriage was called off. I asked around and nobody said ilish was an acceptable fish in the marriage transaction process.

So ilish is like the new rich in Bangladesh, very richy rich but without much class and sharafat. Even my mother gave up cooking ilish one day and began to serve it after baking, re-spicing and re-baking it to make it into a whole new dish.

Keep weeping Bengalis..